1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to gear reducers, and more particularly, to a cone drive, low clearance, high output speed reducer. The invention is specifically concerned with speed reducers for applications requiring unusually low profile, along with high horsepower and output torque capacity, such as applications in coal mining equipment wherein the requirements of coal mining are such as to call for the lowest possible profile in such equipment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known in the speed reducer art to employ means for transmitting power from a driving element to a driven element through a plurality of intermediate gear units, with each gear unit transmitting a portion of the power or taking a portion of the load. Examples of such prior art speed reducers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,499,617, 2,014,138 and 3,338,109. A disadvantage of the aforecited prior art speed reducers is that they have a high profile in order to employ the necessary gearing to provide a high horsepower output. A further disadvantage of the prior art speed reducers is that they have not satisfactorily solved the problem of equally dividing or sharing the load between plural intermediate gear units. One prior art structure for solving the load sharing problem involves the use of specially designed torsionally resilient shafts, or some form of torsionally resilient coupling. Another prior art construction for this purpose includes a special rocker mechanism for producing relative movement between intermediate gears or elements to take up the slack or backlash between the gears. However, such previous constructions are complicated and expensive and are not durable or reliable for heavy loads.